Poseida's sea change

Rather than execute the IPO it proposed in January, Poseida has instead raised a $142 million series C round that includes a $75 million contribution from Novartis. CEO Eric Ostertag told BioCentury that Poseida has withdrawn its prospectus, but still may opt to refile for an IPO within a year.

The lead program from Poseida Therapeutics Inc. (San Diego, Calif.), P-BCMA-101, is an autologous CAR T therapy targeting BCMA. A pivotal Phase II trial of the therapy is enrolling patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma; dosing is to start this half.

Data presented in December 2018 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting showed that response rates ranged from 43% to 100% among dose groups, with low toxicity rates, in a dose-escalation Phase I trial of P-BCMA-101. All three MM patients who...